Scattered Pieces of a Genius' Childhood and Adolescence
by moonlighter01
Summary: Just a collection of one-shots regarding Tony's childhood and teen years.


**Hello! This is a story I started writing way way back. It's just some separate one-shots about Tony's childhood and teen years (the title says it all, because I suck at titles and couldn't find a better one). I actually don't know if anyone will ever read it, but anyway, enjoy and I hope you like it :)**

**4 years old****:** It was a big, normal bedroom, with one bed, a bedside table, a small desk with a chair and a wardrobe. The only evidence that proved it was a child's bedroom was the fact that there was, indeed, one little boy sitting on the floor right in the middle of the room. It was weird, because the child, whose name was Tony, was playing with something. Of course it's not weird that a four year old kid plays with something, the weird part was that there were no toys around, not a single one. So what was Tony playing with?

Well, he was there, sitting on the floor, playing with something that looked like (and in fact was) a circuit board. Anyone would have thought it was strange, even dangerous, to let a kid play with something like that. But Tony was no ordinary kid, he was a genius, although no one knew to what extent just yet. So after a few hours of tinkering, voilà, there you go, you have a nice, working circuit board built by a four year old boy who didn't even know how to read properly yet.

A smile of satisfaction crossed his small, childish face and he looked at the circuit board he had just built like it was a rocket. So he just sat there for five minutes, watching his masterpiece like there was nothing similar in the whole world, as he felt his chest swell with pride. He knew the feeling, but he was too young to know that word, "pride". But what he did know was that, whatever it was, it felt good, and he decided right then that he wanted to feel that way always. So he stood up, grabbed his circuit board carefully and left his room, intent on going downstairs, to the basement, to his father's workshop.

"_Anthony, don't you ever enter here without my permission. Have I made myself clear?"_

"_Yes, dad."_

He suddenly remembered that conversation his father and he had had a few weeks before and he stopped dead in his tracks in the middle of the staircase, wondering if what he was about to do was such a good idea, after all. His father had meant every word he had said, and Tony feared he might get angry. But his happiness, curiosity and pride overrode the fear and he went downstairs anyway.

And there he was his father, the great, the brilliant, the genius Howard Stark. He had his back turned to Tony and was working with something, but Tony had no idea what it was. However he had learned (the hard way) that it was better not to disturb his father when he was busy with something, so he just stood at the door, radiating happiness with a grin spread cheek to cheek.

Then Howard stopped for a moment to wipe away the sweat on his face with the back of his hand. He then proceeded to contemplate his work, just as he heard soft footsteps coming closer. He turned around swiftly with a wary expression on his face.

"Tony" he sighed, but his expression remained the same, "I told you not to come here, didn't I?"

"I know, but I wanted to show you this" Tony explained happily, his hands with the circuit stretched out towards his father.

"What is it?" he asked, looking at Tony with a serious face.

"Don't you know, dad? It's a circuit board, I built it!" he exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Anthony, I don't have time for this. Where have you taken it from? Has it been one of these machines? Don't stand there all silent and answer me. It might be important. What have you broken to get that?"

"I haven't broken anything. I built it." He answered, feeling the pride in his chest disappear as he saw the stern, disappointed look on his father's face. Then he felt the prick of the tears in the corner of his eyes, threatening to spill any time soon.

"Give me that, I'll see where it comes from then, you irresponsible brat." Howard spat as he snatched the circuit board from his son's hands, who started shaking, the tears now rolling freely down his face, and dropped to the floor, sobbing.

Then Howard's expression changed completely. The rage, anger and disappointment disappeared and were replaced with confusion at first, and then, as the realization dawned on him, something akin to amazement. He gaped slightly at the circuit, realizing it was too obsolete, definitely not the kind of circuit his sophisticated machines had. There was only one possible explanation.

"Anthony, have you-?" But he stopped mid-sentence as he saw his son, who was now curled up on the floor, crying and shaking.

"Tony, stop, stop crying, men don't cry"

When he heard that, Tony couldn't help curling in on himself even more, visibly shaking and trying fruitlessly to get away from the scolding he was sure he was going to get.

Howard immediately regretted saying that, and sighing he knelt down next to his son. "Here, take it, it's um, it's very good, have you built it yourself?" he asked his son as softly as he could, as he patted Tony's back a little awkwardly.

Tony looked up at his father with glassy brown eyes and straightened a bit, nodding as he tried to stop sobbing. "Do you, do you like it?" he stammered as he wiped the tears on his face away.

"Sure, it's very good. It could be better with a few tweaks here and there, but all in all it's fine. Mind telling me who helped you? It'll be our little secret." Howard asked then, helping his son to a sitting position on the floor, as he ruffled Tony's hair a bit.

"Nobody, I built it myself in my room." He answered softly, feeling a little bit of pride back in his chest, as he picked the circuit board carefully from where his father had left it on the floor and cradled it in his lap.

He thought he had really impressed his father, because when he stood up and turned around to go back to work, he didn't tell him to leave, as he usually did. Instead, he allowed him to stay there in the workshop for the rest of the afternoon, as long as he made no noise and behaved properly. The notion that he actually had done something aside from disappointing his father made him smile to himself as he saw his father work relentlessly.

So Howard just kept working, half unaware of Tony's presence, and his son just sat there on the floor with his circuit board carefully placed in his lap, watching him work with an amazed look on his face, trying to understand what his father was doing.

He stayed like that for what seemed like hours, until he felt his eyelids droop closed and he placed his masterpiece carefully on the floor in front of him, half a meter away in case he rolled and ended up lying on it or he hit it accidentally. Then he lay down on the floor, curled up and took a last look at his father and at the circuit before closing his eyes. As he felt sleep tugging at the corner of his mind, he heard a voice, but he couldn't understand what it said. Suddenly a loud crash startled him up and he sat up breathing heavily, and his father kept talking, unaware of him.

It took Tony a few seconds to register the situation, and as he did, he felt the pride disappear once again, only to be replaced instantly with sadness and helplessness. Maybe he was just a disappointment after all. His father's words had made that clear – _useless piece of scrap _-. He kept replaying them over and over in his head as he stood up and ran away from the basement, his sobs and footsteps the only noise in the mansion. He had been right, it had not been such a good idea after all.

OOO

Howard had discovered something important, maybe the most important thing in his career (and he hadn't forgotten he was the only man who had been able to synthesize a new element – Vibranium- and used it to build an unbreakable shield, Captain America's shield no less.) So he just started talking to himself as he usually did when he made any kind of progress in his quest to find Steve Rogers.

"God, this is just great, I'm a genius, luckily this will be just what I need for the next expedition to the Arctic."

Then he took a few steps back to take a better look at his newly built machine and he heard a loud crash as he felt his foot crush something.

"Damn," he grunted as he looked down at the floor and saw his son's ruined circuit. "Who has left this useless piece of scrap here…" He trailed off as he suddenly remembered what it was and looked at Tony's face, whose brown eyes were wide with hurt, sadness and sorrow.

Tony scrambled to his feet shakily, tears rolling down his face as sobs wrecked his tiny body, turned around and started running out of the workshop towards his bedroom, crying.

For a moment Howard just stood there, wrapping his head around everything that had happened in such a short period of time. Finally he looked down at the crushed circuit, then to the door and then to what he had just built. Sighing, he rubbed his face tiredly, picked the remnants of his son's circuit from the floor carefully and placed them in a cardboard box. Then he closed it and took it to one of his workbenches. He grabbed a black Sharpie from his desk and wrote '_TONY'S FIRST CIRCUIT BOARD. 07/10/1974' _on its side. Looking around, he found an empty space in one of his shelves and he placed it there. Then he just went to his machine and started inspecting it.

The only evidence left of Tony was a broken pile of wires inside of a box.


End file.
